


Return to Our Roots

by parker_kingofbees



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: I LOVE YOU LEAFY SM!, M/M, Refound Family maybe?, Reincarnation, TW: mentions/vague descriptions of deaths, The Seven as Found Family, and theyre both oneshots so, anyways the tags, both ships are fairly minor, but its a LOVELY fic and it deserves more hits, i hope you dont think i forgot abt this draft, this IS a fanfic for a fanfic so youll want to read it first
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:41:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28747092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parker_kingofbees/pseuds/parker_kingofbees
Summary: "Centuries later, there is still a little grotto of water lilies that hardily and pluckily blooms today. Huge white lilies that crowd around a sweet secret, a statue of two lovers that they surround with their ancestral roots, blooming into a single blue lily in the center that nobody sees. There’s a tapestry of constellations, gemstones set into the roof of the cavern, each painstakingly placed as if by a dear friend. The engravings of about 6 other names beckon the intrepid quest goers closer.Their light slowly fades from near painful brightness, jolting Jason. There’s a voice that’s friend-like and familiar, and it playfully giggles in his mind.Tell Perenna I found her. Polaris guided us back due west, tell Perenna I’m here."-"Lily-white Ties to The Sea"//AKA the Leo POV follow up to a fic that was written a while ago, where Leo looks around at his found family and holds on tight to what he's got.
Relationships: Jason Grace/Percy Jackson, Leo Valdez/Frank Zhang
Comments: 3
Kudos: 9





	Return to Our Roots

**Author's Note:**

  * For [leafiest_groves](https://archiveofourown.org/users/leafiest_groves/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Lily-white Ties to The Sea](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27517390) by [leafiest_groves](https://archiveofourown.org/users/leafiest_groves/pseuds/leafiest_groves). 



> Please read [leafiest_groves'](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27517390) fic first, as this is entirely based on and takes place after it! Also it's a masterpiece, so.

The journey on the  _ Argo II  _ is a lot more tense than Leo was expecting. He doesn’t know Hazel and Frank's deal, as he hasn't really talked to either of the two beyond the light, impersonal "how did you sleep last night", "do you like your rooms", and "have you seen- stop screaming, it's just me- have you seen a walking table? about yea high" questions. You know, the ones you say countless times throughout your life.

He doesn't know Percy all that well, either, but he’s heard Annabeth talk about him a lot while they planned out the ship. They’re best friends, he knows, and he knows Percy is ready for demigod retirement, and maybe it’s because everyone else feels like they had something to prove, especially to prove to Percy, while he seems not to care all that much about the quest, that created the odd tense energy.

Jason, on the other hand, is taking the quest deadly seriously. Leo knows him much, much better than he does Percy, and he chalks it up to Jason being used to taking the lead, being used to taking the responsibility.

But this doesn’t explain why Percy and Jason are so tense around each other.

In retrospect, there was only one logical explanation. But Leo hadn’t quite come to it yet.

None of them had reached the conclusion (well, Piper might’ve) until one of their stops right on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea.

Venus had hinted to Annabeth the importance of making a stop, a hint filled with cryptic lines like “true love never dies”, “it’s beautiful, the way different loves can span lifetimes”, and “memories are such interesting things, aren’t they”, so Leo had added the stop to their ever-growing list of stops in their grand tour of Europe. It was a little, unassuming spot when they first arrived. A shore somewhere between Spain and France, with the warm sea lapping at the sand and the hot sun beating down on the crew’s backs. Piper was the first to suppose that maybe her mother was pulling their legs and distracting them from their mission, but Annabeth insisted that they needed to keep going.

Leo was glad, because he felt this tug in the depth of his chest. Almost like deja vu. And he needed to be here, he could feel it.

Percy was the first to venture out into the sea a bit more, walking over the surface of the water and looking around before giving a whoop. “Hey, guys!” he called out. “There’s a grotto, this way!”

Leo could see why they hadn’t noticed the grotto; the bit of beach they stood on was next to a rocky cliff, and it was in the side of that cliff that the grotto sat. Percy had to escort everyone, one at a time to ensure everyone’s safety, to the little dip. First Annabeth, then Piper, Leo, Jason, Frank, and Hazel was last. Once everyone was over, Percy took the lead- perhaps to make sure nobody else would drown?- and walked into the darkness. It was a short walk, just a twist of a tunnel, and then Leo could hear Percy whisper a quiet ‘wow’.

When he arrived in the cave, Leo nodded with a low whistle. It certainly was pretty, and not all that threatening looking. White flowers (lilies, he thought) covered the ground, and a statue of two women sat in the center. Gemstones were pressed into the ceiling, where they glittered like stars. That’s when something strange happened.

Hazel stepped into the room, the last of their group, and Leo felt his breath get sucked out of his chest. Instantly, thousands of memories flooded his mind. A whole lifetime of memories- a ship, a girl, his name ( _ Lavinia _ ), being a mage, his fire powers, though distinctly different from how they currently operate.

Everyone around him seemed to be reacting similarly. Annabeth (Andrew, in another lifetime), had stumbled from it all. In the front, Percy and Jason were staring at each other.

“Perenna?” he heard Jason say, and the weight of the moment suddenly caught him as Leo remembered two girls, remembered a harpy and a siren, and remembered the love the two shared and danced around and grew. “Jacqueline found you, Perenna. I found you.”

“Yes, you did,” Percy replied, and Leo looked away, overwhelmed by the intimacy between the two boys, mirroring the intimacy of the two stone women.

The rest of the crew seemed to be feeling the intimacy, too, and perhaps, like Leo, they were remembering the day Percy and Jason- that is, Perenna and Jacqueline- died.

_ Lavinia was racing back towards the sea, heart light as her feet skimmed the earth. Fire danced over her arms as her magic began to wear off. A wide, exhilarated, mischievous grin graced her face, a remnant of the energy that had exploded out of her. Behind her, Andrew, Henry, Fran, and Philip ran after her. Her running came to an abrupt stop as she spotted the sea, dyed red by blood. The smile slipped from her face. From her spot above the beach, she could see Perenna leaning over Jacqueline, before slumping over, dissipating into sea foam. _

_ Leaving Jacqueline, half in the water, dying or dead. And if Perenna, immortal that she is, just became seafoam- just  _ died _ \- then Lavinia can guess what happened to her friend. To her best friend. Jacqueline disappeared in a flash of lightning, confirming Lavinia’s worst fears. _

_ Already, tears were pouring down Lavinia’s face. Sobs racked her body, Henry hesitantly approached. “Lavinia… what-” _

_ Henry must’ve seen the sea, because he fell silent. _

_ They all scurried down to where Jacqueline’s body had been, and that’s when they all banded together to create something truly worthy of Jacqueline and Perenna’s memory. Andrew planned it out, and Henry used his magic to create a grotto. Fran piped up with the idea of including a statue, and Philip was the one who said to use water lilies. And Lavinia painstakingly took every stone touched by Henry’s magic and placed them in the walls of the grotto, creating walls of constellations, all surrounding the statue of Perenna and Jacqueline. _

_ Lavinia thought they had finished, but Henry was still etching words into the walls. _

_ “What are you doing?” she asked, curious despite the heavy grief weighing on her shoulders. _

_ “Powerful magic,” Henry responded, eyes still glued on the words. “Our names. It’ll pull our souls back, again and again, to this spot, no matter how many lives it takes. When we’re all here together again… we’ll remember.” _

Leo shook the memory away, and he realized he was staring straight at Hen- at Hazel. Hazel.

“No matter how many lives it takes,” he echoed. Hazel seemed just as stunned herself, because she ripped her eyes away from Leo, looking down at her own two hands, before looking at the names again.

Leo now had two sets of memories, and two sets of consciences, and dueling thoughts. But at the same time, he was still himself, and Lavinia was still a part of him. He was just so much more aware of his previous life.

He turned to look at Frank. His eyes were the same as Fran’s, and Leo started to remember days spent on the boat, jokes passing between the two, the relationship they built. The love that had grown between the two in the days, months,  _ years  _ after Jacqueline and Perenna died.

"I'm sorry," he said before he could stop himself.

"For what?" Frank answered softly, stepping ever so slightly closer.

"I…" Leo wasn't sure.  _ Sorry I don't love you as well as I did _ ? That wasn't fair- Lavinia's love for Fran grew over a much longer extent of time.  _ Sorry I haven't reached out as much as I should've _ ? That wasn't quite right, either. He had wanted, he had desperately, desperately wanted, to reach out to Frank over the past couple weeks.  _ Sorry I haven't reached out as much as I've been wanting to. Sorry for ignoring you because the tightness in my chest scared me.  _ There it was.

"I'm sorry," Leo tried again, "that I've been wanting to reach out to you for so long, that I've been holding back from talking to you, because I was scared of how much I wanted to. Sorry."

"Don't be," Frank said, having inched his way to standing before Leo. "You didn't know. You didn't remember. None of us remembered.” He had stopped talking, his dark oak eyes wandering around the grotto in a mix of awe and understanding and grief. “We all just gained and lost so much. We all just gained another lifetime together. And the memories of each of our deaths.”

Like lightning, deaths flashed behind Leo’s eyelids. Philip, stabbed through multiple times by pirates. Andrew, falling down the deep pit and being swallowed by darkness. Fran, growing frail with a mysterious illness. Fifteen years had passed since Perenna and Jacqueline died, and Lavinia and Henry were the only two of their original crew still alive. Lavinia, burning to save their new crew. Rebirth after a long time of waiting and realizing she couldn’t find her friends. She prayed they chose rebirth, too.

Leo was crying. He was alive, his friends were alive, they were all alive and as well as they could be, and he was crying. Then there was warmth, and he was crying in Frank’s arms, and Hazel and Piper joined their hug, too. The family he fought with, the family he tried desperately to protect, ultimately failing, together again. Annabeth joined their hug too, to Leo’s surprise. Then, after Percy and Jason joined the embrace, Leo could finally feel his sobs subsiding. They were together. And he wouldn’t ever let another one of them go.


End file.
